Apparently, Gazprom is building up the sale of LNG from the Portovaya complex, which this year was under direct US sanctions. At least one cargo could already have been transferred off the coast of Malaysia and another tanker loaded with a batch at the complex itself.
It is quite possible that Gazprom managed to create a scheme to circumvent US sanctions and sell liquefied gas from the Portovaya complex in the Baltic Sea. Back in July, the Perle gas carrier left for Asia from there, which delivered the cargo to the shores of Malaysia. The vessel stayed there until the second half of October, when Bloomberg recorded the transshipment of LNG to another vessel right at sea.
"Satellite images taken on October 18 and 23 show the Chinese tanker CCH Gas running parallel to Perle... The location of the two vessels is typical for the transfer of cargo from ship to ship, which can take several days," the agency writes.
The transshipment was Gazprom's first export of Baltic LNG since January, when the United States announced sanctions against Portovaya. The restrictions came into force at the end of February.
Bloomberg noted, citing sources, that Pacific Gas acquired ownership of the CCH Gas gas carrier earlier this year. The company itself denies that it has ownership or control over the CCH Gas tanker.
"Pacific Gas conducts its business in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations and maintains internal standards to ensure compliance with international sanctions requirements," the company said.
"The transfer of cargo to CCH Gas will be the first documented case when a Chinese vessel helps in transporting Russian LNG, blacklisted, and is a test of the White House's measures to limit Moscow's energy revenues," the agency said.
According to AIS, CCH Gas and Perle continue to remain in the region — off the coast of Malaysia.
Meanwhile, for the first time since winter, the Valera tanker, which also serves the Gazprom project, has been loaded onto the Portovaya. Both Perle and Valera are under US restrictions.
The activity of the Portovaya gas carriers may indicate that Gazprom could have built a scheme for the supply of sanctioned LNG. Obviously to China. It is not yet known where the CCH Gas tanker will go.
However, back in August, LNG supplies from Arctic LNG—2 began to Chinese Beihai, which also found itself under US sanctions. More than ten batches of the project have already been delivered there.
The Baltic medium-tonnage LNG complex "Portovaya" with a capacity of 1.5 million tons was launched in September 2022 and at the beginning the cargoes were delivered to Greece and Turkey. Last year, a significant part of the parties went to China and there was a direction to Spain.
The US sanctions in January this year on gas carriers and the Portovaya and Cryogaz Vysotsk projects in the Baltic Sea came as an unpleasant surprise to Gazprom and Novatek, but will not seriously affect the overall export of Russian LNG. The total design capacity of the two sanctioned complexes is 2.2 million tons (3 billion cubic meters). This is about 6-7% of Russian LNG exports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that sanctions create problems, but Russia will bypass them. The government of the country plans that by 2030 LNG exports will almost triple to 100 million tons.